The Detroit Lions suffered a 32-26 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday night in a game where the Panthers had 445 yards, continuing a pattern of lackluster defensive showings. However, despite the poor defense, it sounds like head coach Dan Campbell doesn’t want to talk about any changes to his coaching staff.
After Sunday night’s game, Campbell was asked directly whether or not he would consider firing defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, and he flatly refused to answer the question.
Defensive Struggles
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While the Detroit offense was strong enough on Sunday night, putting up 26 points and 452 total yards behind a dominant 412-yard passing performance from quarterback Jared Goff, the defense struggled once again.
Carolina moved the ball at will against the Lions, racking up 445 total yards and 6.2 yards per play. Panthers quarterback Bryce Young looked like an MVP candidate, completing 29 of 41 passes for 329 yards and two touchdowns.
This marked the third time in four weeks that the Lions have allowed 30 or more points in a single game and the first time that the’ve done that in the first four weeks since the team went 0-16 in 2008.
Firing Sheppard?
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Given the team’s struggles on the defensive side of the ball this season, Campbell was asked after the game if he had given any thought to making a coordinator change on defense. Campbell, however, refused to answer the question.
“I’m not talking about all that,” Campbell said [after the game](http://youtube.com/watch?v=B7E8ZOJxjPg). “I’m talking about getting better right now with what we got and that’s what we’re going do. We’re going to find a way to get better with what we got.”
Campbell said that there are still things he feels like the Lions can address before they “exhaust everything here” in their attempts to improve the defense. We’ll have to see how long this can last before Campbell does feel the need to make changes to his staff.